Asparagus and Blue Potatoes
by gveret
Summary: Lena knows Kara is Supergirl. It's just that sometimes, she forgets. Occasionally, it happens at the very worst moment possible.


My contribution to the wonderful supercorp zine. Check out the rest of the amazing entries on their tumblr.

**Warning** for violence, injury and extremely terrible poetry.

* * *

"Lena, what do you think is the sexiest vegetable?"

"Kale," Lena said immediately.

Kara frowned at her. "Be serious."

"Generally, fruits are considered the sexy ones, not vegetables."

"Why?"

"Why?" Lena looked kind of struck for a moment, then relaxed into an awfully endearing, huffy little laugh. "You know, you're right. What the hell. Asparagus is terribly sexy. Changes the smell of your pee and everything."

"Asparagus." Kara mulled it over. "Mm, I don't know. That's hard to rhyme."

Lena put her fork down, pushed her plastic bowl aside and leaned eagerly toward Kara across the picnic table. "You're writing an erotic poem, I knew it. Whom for?"

"Ero—_ Whuh _? No!" Kara spluttered. "It's not—Lena! It's nothing like that."

Lena raised an eyebrow and said nothing, lips poised on the verge of a smirk. Totally mortifying. A little bit hot.

Kara swallowed down all those kinds of feelings, and her trepidation too. If she's gonna do this, she's gotta do it. "It's—it's more of a romantic. Poem." She cleared her throat, then had to wipe her hand off on her shirt. "A… a _love _—"

Naturally, that was when the kryptonite dart sank into Kara's neck. A barely felt tickle, like that time she'd solar flared last summer and kept getting bitten by mosquitoes and Lena had called her _'irresistibly sweet' _and then maintained eye contact for a strangely lengthy moment. Except, this was nothing like that at all, because this wasn't a mosquito, it was _kryptonite _, and Kara was in excruciating pain.

"_ Shit! _Stay away from her!" Lena snarled, leaping off the park bench and flapping at Kara behind her. "Kara, get behind me!"

"_ 'Get behind me _'?" Kara repeated, outraged. She tore the dart out of her neck, blinking through the painful haze. "You—!"

Kara heard another telltale whistle. She reached out, caught the dart making its way to Lena's shoulder, and slid it discreetly in her pocket. The moment of distraction cost her, though: a boot was already making contact with Lena's perfectly breakable, terrifyingly fragile face.

Kara stumbled around Lena and slammed inelegantly into the assailant, toppling him to the ground as Lena groaned in pain, staggering back, a bright spurt of blood getting lost in the grass below.

Kara had to steady herself against the picnic table to remain upright. She was likely going to lose consciousness soon. And Lena—Lena was hurt, Lena wasn't running away, Lena was still stubbornly putting herself between Kara and these people with _armor _and _weapons _—

"Lena, _you _—" Kara tried to admonish as the world blacked out around her.

.

.

Kara opened her eyes to the sickly green glow of bulky kryptonite cuffs reflecting off the concrete walls of a tiny, windowless cell.

She rolled over with a groan, feeling stiff and aching with the kryptonite's invasive radiation, and bumped into another warm body.

"_ Urrgh. _" Lena tried to pick herself up but lost her balance. Her hands were bound as well. She looked… concerning. "Oh, good," she croaked. "They've kept us together."

Kara rocked onto her knees and rushed to steady her. "_ Lena! _Why would you _do _this? I have _superpowers! _"

Lena blinked at her sluggishly, slow to absorb her words. The stupid, concussed, _stupid _freaking hero. Finally her eyes widened in delayed understanding. Then she gave a stupid, stupid, lopsided, obviously painful shrug.

Kara stared at her, horrified. "Lena. Lena. Lena Kieran Luthor. Did you—forget. That I'm Supergirl."

Lena gave her injured facsimile of a shrug again. "I forgot."

"You for—I can't believe you! My deepest, darkest secret, probably the most harrowing conversation I've ever—You _forgot _!"

Lena winced. "As much as I enjoy a good scolding, and you know I do," she said with a slow, meaningful blink, "could we possibly save this for some time when my head isn't being split down the middle like a walnut shell?"

Kara sighed and helped Lena into a sitting position. "Come here. Let me see." She cupped Lena's face in her bound hands and turned it side to side.

Bloodied, swollen nose, the beginning of a dark bruise, dilated pupils. Kara clenched her teeth. Could be worse, really, but no amount of injury to this particular face was tolerable as far as Kara was concerned. Not that she enjoyed watching _any _face get hurt. But.

This was _Lena._

Lena's eyes fluttered shut for a delicate moment, as if in response to Kara's thoughts, cheek pressing into Kara's palm. "Kara," she said, soft but intent. "Superheroes need protecting, too."

Kara let out a breath. "Lena, that…" She stroked her thumb across Lena's cheek, coming to rest at the corner of her lips. "That was _so _corny."

Lena turned her head to press a soft kiss to the pad of Kara's thumb. "Learned from the best," she murmured.

Kara could feel her pulse pounding in her fingertips.

"Oh! Speaking of _the best _." Lena hefted her bound hands, visibly struggling with the weight of her restraints, and stuck them right into her cleavage. She wiggled around for a good second before extricating them with a triumphant _"Aha!"_

"Is that…?" Kara stared at the compact pentagonal shape bearing her family's crest. "You keep a spare anti-kryptonite suit in your _bra _? What else have you got in there?"

Lena gave her a look that seemed to have gotten turned around on its way to _sultry _and arrived at _sleepy _instead. "Wouldn't you like to know."

Kara felt herself flush against her better judgment. This was certainly not the time.

"Here we go." Lena swung her arms and slapped the retracted suit against Kara's chest.

Kara felt the cold, crawling sensation of the suit unfurling around her body, followed by the abrupt relief of her powers kicking in, like blood flowing back into a compressed limb. She flexed her fingers, the sound of her own heart beating strong and familiar in her ears once again, and drew her wrists apart, snapping her restraints like a gummy worm.

"Mm," Lena hummed next to her, a peculiar expression on her face. "Always love seeing that."

Kara stretched out her arms above her head, kicking up into a brief, satisfied hover and shooting a burst of energy that blew the wall of their cell into dust. "_ Neato _."

Lena held out her hands for Kara to free, that same unreadable expression seeming to have only intensified. "Neato," she repeated quietly as Kara tore the metal apart.

Kara let the shredded cuffs drop to the floor, fingers hovering by Lena's wrists, reluctant to let go of this tenuous contact. Lena watched her, unblinking, the sounds of the inner workings of their bodies filling the room with an intimate rhythm.

"What the _fuck _!"

Oh. Some guy with a gun had stumbled through the hole Kara had blown in the wall. She probably should've anticipated that.

He pointed the gun at Kara. "S-Supergirl, stay back!"

"Don't you touch her!" Lena barreled straight at him and slammed her elbow into his jaw, producing a nasty sounding crack.

"_ Lena! _Again?!" Kara called, tapping the man gently on the neck before he could strike Lena with the butt of his very illegal-looking rifle. He crumpled to the floor.

Lena had swung again, too slow to reassess the threat, and overbalanced. Kara caught her as she stumbled. "Was it really necessary that time?"

Lena sagged against Kara's chest, cradling her arm. "He was going to hurt you."

Kara tapped her very conspicuous helmet, producing a satisfyingly clangy sound. "_ Supergirl _, remember?"

Lena made a deep sort of rumbling noise. Kara could feel it vibrating in her own chest. "Whatever," she mumbled. "It's instinctual. I guess."

A deep, permeating warmth spread through Kara's chest at those words. "Well—that's not very smart and actually very scary and please stop. But, um." Kara dipped her head to breathe in Lena's ear a quiet, "Thanks."

She shifted her hand to the small of Lena's back on the tail end of a caress, bent over and maneuvered her into a bridal carry. Lena wound her arms around Kara's neck, head settling against Kara's shoulder, natural as anything.

"Up, up and away," Lena murmured, nuzzling into Kara's neck.

Kara concentrated on breathing evenly through her nose as she shot out of the bunker, struggling to keep her focus on memorizing every detail of its location and appearance rather than the warm, distinct texture of Lena's lips pressed to her throat, the achingly dear sound of Lena's breath, turning slow and even with the occasional soft, endearing snore—

"Crud! Lena, hey." Kara jostled her gently in her arms, grimacing through it. "Lena. Don't fall asleep. Come on, eyes on me. Please."

Lena mumbled indistinctly and tucked her face even more securely into the crook of Kara's neck.

"No, no, no," Kara moaned despairingly. Why did Lena have to be so concussed and also so _cute _?

Steeling herself, and looking away from the atrocity she was about to commit, Kara reached around and pushed Lena's head off her shoulder with the tip of a finger.

Lena's head dipped before jerking back up. She made an absurdly charming loud snorting noise as her eyes fluttered open. "Oh… Hi, Supergirl," she said, squinting up at Kara.

_So _cute. "Hi, Lena."

"That's right, we… Hm." Lena's forehead creased. She tapped Kara's shoulder with a finger. "Supergirl. Do me a favor, don't tell Kara I was with you today, okay? She'll worry."

Kara groaned. "You're _unbelievable _!"

"Excuse you, Supergirl. I'm perfectly reasonable."

"You're severely concussed, is what you are!"

Lena laid her head against Kara's chest and hummed noncommittally.

Kara only hoped Alex had some more of that miracle Head Trauma Begone nanobot something-or-other.

.

.

Alex did have some miracle Head Trauma Begone nanobot something-or-other. Upon hearing Kara call it that, she seemed rather determined to explain it in great detail, but Kara had other priorities.

She headed straight for Lena's DEO bed, crawled in next to her, and wiggled beneath the sheet until their hips were touching. Lena looked on affectionately, bandaged but blessedly clear-eyed.

"I found this." Kara plucked out the precious piece of paper and handed it to Lena. "Still in my pocket. Guess they weren't very thorough with the body searches."

"Yes, erotic poems, truly the most lethal of weapons."

"It's not—Okay. Just read it, please?"

Lena maintained eye contact as she unfolded the notebook paper, one eyebrow firmly quirked. The teasing expression softened by degrees as her eyes skimmed across the page.

Kara's throat worked.

Lena's tongue darted out to wet slightly parted lips. "_ 'Eyes as green as asparagus _'," she read out loud.

Kara considered, for a brief moment, that she maybe should have felt some level of embarrassment just then, but quickly dismissed the thought.

"_ 'I imagine finding traces of you in every covalent bond', _" Lena continued. She swallowed visibly. " _'Forever striving to get closer to… _something that rhymes with asparagus'."

Kara cleared her throat, running a hand over the back of her neck. "I didn't have time to finish it," she explained. "Having been kidnapped and everything."

Lena looked up at her, something pronounced but indefinable shining in her eyes. "It's perfect," she said with almost dizzying earnestness. "It's perfectly you."

Kara dug fingertips into her nape, Lena's heartbeat and her own thundering in her ears. "So… what, what do you say?"

"What do I say?" Lena let out a short laugh, incredulity and delight. "I say: _finally _."

The page crunched as Lena slid it aside, fingers digging dimples in the paper as they were into the skin of Kara's jaw, and Kara had to turn her head barely a degree to crush her mouth to Lena's. Kara's hand reached to cup Lena's darling face, thread into her sweat encrusted hair, tighten helplessly within it as Lena's lips opened and her teeth _closed _, dragging a noise straight from Kara's lungs, bypassing her brain entirely.

Why hadn't they done this before? Why hadn't they been doing this _forever _? It felt as though perhaps they had; as though Lena somehow already knew all there was to know about Kara's mouth. As though from its conception, it was made for her to kiss.

Lena released Kara's lips with a sigh and stared into her eyes with a slightly intimidating intensity.

"What… what is it?"

"Hmm." Lena touched Kara's chin, guiding her head side to side. Then she nodded. "As blue as a blue potato," she concluded.

Kara felt a big messy grin spreading across her face, like a spilled glass of chocolate milk. Or a splattered glob of mashed blue potatoes, maybe.

She was _so _glad that soulmates were real.


End file.
